


Your Smile is the Sunshine

by MikazukiMunechika305



Category: AKB48
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-24 06:32:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14949419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MikazukiMunechika305/pseuds/MikazukiMunechika305
Summary: The first time they met was when Yuki was out for shopping. At that time, although she'd definitely noticed that Mayu was different from other people, she'd never have expected her to be an angel.{Setting based on the Bokutachi wa Tatakawanai MV}





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first AKB48 fic (I'm not counting the MajiGaku one here), so I'm kind of nervous about uploading it... but I decided to do it anyways! (lol)
> 
> I got this idea while I was watching the Bokutachi wa Tatakawanai MV, so the setting (e.g. Yuki's home) is based on that. I hope you'll enjoy reading!
> 
> (Also, on another note, I'm very new to this fandom, but I'm really glad Jurina won the SSK. I'm so happy for her, she really deserves it!)

The first time they met was when Yuki was out for shopping. She accidentally bumped into the girl and lowered her head apologetically before hurrying to get to the next store—and then, she stopped in her tracks to turn back and look at the other girl again.

She was a bit smaller than Yuki herself, and held her head low, barely looking at anyone. From under her hair, Yuki thought she could see a slim silver necklace shining around the other girl’s neck. And then, she had vanished into the crowd of people around them, and Yuki found herself staring at where the girl had been only seconds ago.

With a sigh, she forced herself to focus on the task at hand (shopping) again and entered the store she was standing in front of.

But for the next few days, Yuki couldn’t stop thinking about the girl she’d bumped into. She didn’t know anything about her (not her name, not where she lived, nothing), but there had been something special about her. Something that made Yuki wonder if the other girl was even human ( _Of course she’s human, dumbass! It’s not like she'd actually be anything else_ , she scolded herself harshly) and that kept her unable to focus on her daily tasks properly.

Whenever she went shopping, she kept looking around to check if she could see the other girl again. And then, one day, Yuki was lucky.

She saw the girl from her peripheral vision, and immediately spun on her heels, grabbing the girl's wrist. “Hey,” she said quietly. “I'm Kashiwagi Yuki. We bumped into each other the other day, do you remember?”

The girl stared at her in silence for a moment. “I do. But I don't usually talk to people I bumped into, so please let go of me.”

Yuki shook her head quickly. “No, please. Let's talk, even if it's only for five minutes. You're so pretty and cute, and…” She trailed off, not knowing how to describe the word _supernatural_ without actually saying it.

“...fine. I suppose I can spare five minutes, but no more than that.” The girl allowed Yuki to pull her along to a small café and sat down at a table with her. “Make it quick.”

“May I know your name?”

“You can call me Nezumi…”

“Is that your real name?” Yuki questioned curiously. “Which kind of parent would name their child Nezumi?”

The girl who had called herself Nezumi glared at Yuki. “It's not my real name. I'm not ready to tell you that yet.”

Yuki quickly lifted her hands, a bit defensive. “Of course, sorry. Um, do you come here often?”

Nezumi shrugged, looking away. “Sometimes.”

“Maybe… when you come here again, can we go shopping together? There's something special about you, so… I'd like to get to know you better.”

Nezumi got to her feet and again, Yuki could see the necklace around her neck (though this time, it looked a bit more like a collar to her—like it was holding her captive). “I doubt that will be possible. And my five minutes are up, so I'll be taking my leave now.”

“What? No, wait! Nezumi-chan—”

But the other girl turned away and left without giving her another glance. Nezumi took as much time on her way home (to the place she had to call her home now, even if she didn't feel comfortable there at all) as she thought she'd be able to afford, and reluctantly knocked at the door of the house.

The door was opened by a young woman who looked like she was a bit older than Nezumi herself. She scoffed at Nezumi in annoyance. “There you are. He's angry again; all because of you.”

Nezumi remained silent and made her way inside to the living room, lowering her head in front of the man sitting on the sofa. “I'm back, Sir.”

“I can see that.” He motioned for her to come closer, and she reluctantly obeyed, still looking at the floor. Then he slapped her hard enough for his heavy silver ring to leave a dark red mark on her cheek. “And you're supposed to call me Master, have you forgotten that?”

“No,” Nezumi managed through gritted teeth, bringing a hand up to cup her aching cheek. “I haven't forgotten that… Master.” Calling a human her master felt like getting both her heart and her brain stabbed by sharp knives because the concept of someone else than her Mistress ordering her around still was foreign to Nezumi.

As an angel (even as a fallen one, because she had fallen after The War between humans and angels), her only master (or mistress) was the archangel. And now this human had taken control over her, he'd taken her wings and her powers and put a collar on her both to show that she was his and to make her unable to use her powers. Nezumi hated him like nothing and nobody else.

And still, she had to serve him. Despite the smug grin on his face whenever he saw her, and despite the fact that she'd threatened to kill him when he'd first taken her captive more than a year ago. Calling her Nezumi was just another thing he did to make her feel even worse.

“Nezumi,” he spoke up again, said smug grin on his lips, and his voice a bit mocking. “Don't you have work to do instead of standing around here?”

Nezumi’s back straightened up a bit and she stomped out of the living room, a scowl on her face. She did her work in silence, ignoring the other people working for her master. Oh, how much she wished to be able to poison his food—but she couldn't, because it would have caused too much of an uproar.

Suddenly, her thoughts trailed back to the girl she'd met earlier. “Kashiwagi Yuki,” she murmured to herself, lost in thought. Nezumi wondered if Yuki had noticed anything off about her. She'd called her _special_ , but that didn't give Nezumi any hint as to whether Yuki had noticed anything about her true identity or not.

It was common knowledge that after The War, fallen angels had ended up serving humans, but Nezumi wasn't a person to peddle her true identity around. Some other fallen angels had ended up in great families where they were accepted and treated well—Nezumi herself hadn't had that kind of luck, so she didn't want to give anyone any chance to mock her.

But the way Yuki had said the word _special_ hadn't seemed like she meant _magical_ but more like _extraordinarily pretty_. Maybe she didn't see anything else than a cute girl in Nezumi, and Nezumi hoped to keep it that way. She wasn't planning to see Yuki again, let alone tell her about her true identity.

 

Meanwhile, Yuki was on her way back home. She lived in a part of the town that wasn’t exactly a nice place to live in, along with a few other women who couldn’t afford proper homes after their houses had been destroyed in The War. They had to spend what little money they could earn with their part-time jobs for food, and they lived in shacks on a field.

But Yuki didn’t mind. Since her parents had never belonged to the rich people, she’d always had to be careful about spending her money, and in her opinion, the kind of life she had right now bound people together, so she made the best of it.

Despite that, these days, she couldn’t stop thinking about the strange girl she’d met. “Nezumi,” she mumbled to herself, nearly feeling the word on her tongue. She still thought that was a strange name, but then she remembered that it wasn’t the girl’s real name.

“Yuki,” a voice pulled her mind back to reality, and she winced slightly as she looked into her friend’s eyes.

“Ah, Haruka,” Yuki greeted her and handed Shimazaki Haruka the bag containing the things she’d bought today. “Here, can you take this to everyone?”

Haruka raised an eyebrow questioningly. “You’re not coming?”

“Not just yet,” Yuki excused herself with an apologetic smile. “I’ll be there in half an hour or so. Can you keep an eye on Yuu-kun until then?” Yuu was their friend Jurina’s son. His father had died in The War, so Jurina was now raising him together with the other women living with them. And now, it was actually Yuki’s turn to watch over Yuu while Jurina was working.

Haruka nodded slightly and turned away, giving Yuki another questioning glance as she carried the bag back to the others.

Yuki entered the shack she lived in and collapsed on her bed with a heavy sigh, wincing when the bed creaked loudly. _Sounds like I’ll have to fix it again_ , she thought a bit absent-mindedly, her thoughts still mainly focused on Nezumi. She wondered if she’d be able to see the girl again, and what Nezumi would say if that did actually happen, and if she’d ever get to know the other girl’s real name.

The door to her hut opened, and Yuu peeked in. “Yuki-nee-san!” he exclaimed happily, running over to her and climbing onto her bed.

She looked at him in surprise. “Yuu-kun! What are you doing, how did you know I already got back?”

He grinned at her widely. “Paru-nee told me,” he explained, referring to Haruka. “She brought your bag, after all.”

Yuki chuckled and ruffled his hair. “Fine, I should’ve known I wouldn’t be able to hide from you.” The boy was smart for his age (he was only four years old), and Haruka had probably wanted to avoid making him cry by not telling him where Yuki was.

“Yuki-nee-san, can you come outside and play with me?” he begged, tugging at her shirt eagerly, and Yuki decided to oblige.

She got up from her bed and followed him out of the shack, pushing her thoughts about Nezumi into the furthest corner of her mind; there were other things to focus on now.


	2. Chapter 2

A few days passed, and Yuki managed to take her mind off Nezumi for most of the time. She played with Yuu when it was her turn to take care of him, cooked for the others when she was on cooking duty, and went to her part-time job at a supermarket as usual. She didn’t run into Nezumi again, and for a while she wondered if she’d only imagined their previous two meetings.

But then, one day, Yuki was just heading home from her job when she found herself looking into Nezumi’s eyes. “Nezumi-chan,” she exclaimed in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

Nezumi’s expression darkened a bit. “Shopping,” she muttered, trying to make her way past Yuki.

But Yuki, even though Nezumi was holding her head low and avoiding her glance now, had already seen a dark bruise around the other girl’s left eye. “Nezumi-chan! What happened to you? You’re hurt!”

Silently, Nezumi tried to push past her again, but Yuki decisively grabbed her wrist now. “Let me put some ointment on that,” she said. “Come home with me and let me do it—you can spare five minutes, right? It won’t take any longer than that.” And with that, she already pulled Nezumi along.

The other girl reluctantly followed her, frowning deeply. “Kashiwagi, let me go. You shouldn’t get yourself involved with me.”

“Too late for that now,” Yuki declared, not even thinking about letting go. “I have no idea what happened to you, but that black eye you’ve got there looks really painful.”

“…it is,” Nezumi relented after a moment of hesitation, her resistance fading a little. “I’m fine, though.”

Yuki simply ignored her and kept dragging her along until they reached Yuki’s home. The taller girl entered her hut first and motioned for Nezumi to sit down on the bed.

Nezumi obeyed, looking around skeptically. “This is where you live?”

Shrugging slightly, Yuki took out a first-aid-kit. “It is. You’re probably used to nicer houses—judging by that fancy necklace you’re wearing, at least—but you can make do with this for a few minutes, can’t you?”

“That’s… yes, I can.” Nezumi fell silent and allowed Yuki to brush her hair aside and disinfect the dark, slightly rough bruise around her eye. “I just… expected something else.”

Yuki raised an eyebrow briefly, but then went back to taking care of Nezumi’s eye. A few moments later, she placed a band-aid on the bruise and got up, nodding contently. “I hope the ointment will help; it’s a bit old, since we haven’t had the money to buy any new medications recently.”

“I’ll be fine,” Nezumi sighed quietly. “Wait… ‘we?’”

“Yes. There’s a few of us living here after The War destroyed our houses. Our families died—well, luckily Jurina could save her son—so we don’t have anyone to turn to. And no money, either…” She trailed off, scowling. “Because a certain someone in town is hogging all the money. Seriously, we could use some of it, but he just enjoys seeing us suffer, doesn’t he?”

Nezumi immediately knew that Yuki was referring to her master, Sei Ryuho. He owned most of the money in town and she knew that he had no intention of ever sharing it with the poor. “Yes, he does,” Nezumi spat out angrily, clenching her hands to fists. “He’s probably the only one who actually profited from The War. And he destroyed my entire life, too…”

Yuki watched her curiously. “He did? No offense, but… you don’t exactly look poor or anything like that.”

“I work for him,” Nezumi deadpanned, gesturing at her necklace.

Yuki fell silent for a moment, then she reached out for the other girl’s hand sympathetically. “Oh, I’m sorry… that must be horrible. Is he the one who gave you the name ‘Nezumi,’ then?”

A bit reluctantly, Nezumi nodded as she realized that she had just told Yuki something she hadn’t wanted her to know.

“Hey, can I ask what you did before The War?”

“No.” That was definitely too intimate, Nezumi decided, considering that they barely knew each other. And considering that Yuki had just decided that they had to be friends without Nezumi’s agreement. “Well, anyways… I should go home now.” Nezumi got up from the bed and headed to the door.

“Wait, Nezumi-chan… stay here for a bit longer, let’s talk a bit more,” Yuki suggested hopefully. “We can talk about something else, it doesn’t have to be about The War or anything like that, I just want to get to know you better…”

“I can’t.”

And then, she was gone, the door falling shut behind her with a _thump_. Yuki lied back on her bed, sighing thoughtfully and trying to figure out a way to get Nezumi to talk to her.

When she woke up in the next morning, Yuki decided not to let Nezumi get away from her so easily anymore. She felt a bit bad about pestering the other girl so much, but she had come to understand that Nezumi didn’t enjoy working for the richest man in town, so she wanted to help her.

So when she went to work that day, Yuki talked to her coworkers about Sei Ryuho. She asked them where he lived and what he did in his free time, whether he had a job (of course he didn’t have one, being as rich as he was, and she silently scolded herself for asking that question) and how many people worked for him. Yuki even found out that they didn’t seem to be only working for him, but they seemed to be more like servants or even slaves to him.

That piece of information was what helped Yuki make up her mind. She wasn’t just going to try—no, she was _definitely_ going to help Nezumi leave that place. But first, she’d need the other girl to trust her more.

In the afternoon, when her shift was over, Yuki went to the address her coworkers had given her. It was an impressive house, huge and clean and very pretty, surrounded by a white wall with a black gate. For a moment, Yuki wondered if she could be living in a house like that now if The War hadn’t happened. Then, she shook her head to get rid of the thought and waited near the gate, assuming that Nezumi would leave the house (either for shopping or to do some work in the garden) eventually.

To her own surprise, she had been right with that assumption. An hour later, after Yuki had changed her waiting spot a few times in order not to seem too suspicious, Nezumi left the house, leaving the door open.

Yuki waved at her from the other side of the street, but Nezumi didn’t show any reaction and instead went to cut the bushes that lined the way from the gate to the entrance of the house. For a while she worked in silence, but then Yuki grew a bit impatient.

She crossed the street and walked closer to the gate, her eyes fixed on Nezumi, and when she was close enough, she hissed at her. “Nezumi-chan!”

Nezumi ignored her at first, but when Yuki hissed her name a second time, she looked up, a frown on her face. With a sigh, she walked closer to the gate to cut the bushes there and leaned a bit closer to Yuki. “What are you doing here?”

“Figuring out how to get you out of here,” Yuki replied just as quietly. “You want to leave, right? You sounded like you did.”

The other girl groaned. “There’s no way _you_ can help me. Not if I can’t even help myself.”

Yuki stared at her, dumbfound. “What? Don’t be so conceited, you should accept other people’s help…”

“It’s not about that. It’s simply about the difference in our statuses. And now you should leave, Kashiwagi.” Nezumi demonstratively turned away, but Yuki wasn’t willing to give up just yet.

“Please, can you at least tell me your real name?”

“No. You’ll have too much power if I do. Well, you’re probably too dumb to use it, but…” she added, muttering under her breath, but Yuki had heard her.

“I’m not dumb—”

Nezumi cut her off, this time glaring at her. “Yes, you are. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t have come here trying to ‘save’ me. Go home now.”

A heavy, unhappy sigh left Yuki’s lips. “You know, you really shouldn’t try to solve things like this on your own. You’re making it sound like you enjoy being here,” she muttered as she slowly turned away. “Fine, I’ll leave.” She winced when she suddenly felt a hand close around her wrist, and her surprise was clearly visible when she turned around to see Nezumi reaching through the gate to hold her back.

“…Mayu,” the other girl mumbled barely audibly. “That’s my name. But you have to promise you won’t use it for anything bad.”

Yuki looked at her with wide eyes for a moment longer, but then a small smile spread on her lips. “Thanks. I’ll come back soon.”

When Yuki had left, Mayu sighed heavily, a deep frown on her face. She wasn’t usually this reckless; telling Yuki her name might have been one of the stupidest things she’d ever done. Once someone knew an angel’s name, they could use it to call and control that angel wherever and whenever they felt like it, which was why Mayu never told people her name if she could avoid it.

She could have avoided it this time, as well; Yuki had already seemed ready to give up. But the words _you’re making it sound like you enjoy being here_ had made Mayu feel like she’d snapped out of a daze. _I don’t enjoy being here_ , her mind had screamed, and just with that instinct, she’d reached out for Yuki’s hand.

Despite her discomfort about Yuki knowing her name, Mayu knew that it was probably impossible for the human girl to ever use it. Yuki hadn’t even realized that Mayu was an angel, so the chance that she knew the right words to call or control an angel was very low. _If anything_ , Mayu told herself with another sigh, _this will make her try even harder to get me out of here, which is only good for me_. She couldn’t use her powers anyways, so Yuki would never have to learn that she was an angel.

Except if Mayu had to ask her to help her take the necklace off. She couldn’t even touch it herself—she’d tried that, during her first days at her master’s house, but it had just left burning marks on her hands just as it had on her neck when he’d first put it on her. And Mayu didn’t know what would happen if Yuki—or anyone else, for that matter—were to take the necklace off for her.

Maybe nothing would happen, and she’d just be able to use her powers again without any side effects. But maybe her powers would explode or something similar, destroying her surroundings and maybe even killing the people around her. That was something Mayu wanted to avoid at all cost. She didn’t want anyone to die, even if Yuki had been annoying her lately; that wasn’t what angels were supposed to use their powers for, not even if it happened on accident.

Mayu’s frown deepened slightly when that thought ran through her mind. She didn’t want Yuki to die— _does that mean I care for her?_ she wondered, but immediately shook her head rapidly. _Stupid_ , she scolded herself, _of course I don’t care about that human_. But deep down, she knew that she felt something else than just annoyance for Yuki.


End file.
